I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

They shouldn't gone out to the world!

While surfing Al-Mujaz website (the website for the Arabic and Muslim minority in Denmark), I ran into a very interesting piece of news. The Danish newspaper Politiken interviewed Dr. Tarek Ramadan who is the grandson of Sheikh Hassan Al-Bana (the one who first established the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in Egypt. In the interview Dr. Tarek Ramadan said that the Imams in Denmark committed a great mistake by taking the problem of the Danish cartoons out of Danish borders to the Middle East. Moreover, when asked if he considers them as traitors he answered "Yes, it is treason". Dr. Ramdan added that he went to Denmark in October 2005 and urged the imams there not to protest against the cartoons because such protests is just what the Danish right-wing is waiting for.

Dr. Tarek Ramadan is famous for his theories and books about what is called (I don't know by who) the European version of Islam. He has two PhDs in the philosophy and sciences of Islam. He sounds to be well known all over Europe as he gives lectures in many European cities, Al Mujaz says.

Well, I decided just to put the piece of news as it is from Al-Mujaz and add no comments on it. However, I had a couple of questions about what Dr. Tarek Ramadan said in the interview:

If Dr. Ramadan believed that the Danish right-wing just wanted the protests, does this mean that he believes that the cartoons might have really been published on purpose as some Danish imams say? (try to get what I am aiming at)

Why doesn't Dr. Tarek Ramadan express and share his opinions about the crisis in Arabic media as well?

Tarek Ramadan is well known among the Muslim community in the US as well. He is seen as an intellectual moderate who is looked up to by most educated Muslims here in the US.

I am not sure to what extent the Arab media recognizes him or interviews him regularly. That is, has he been interviewed by AlJazeera or AlArabiya in the past?

As for your first question, I honestly do not know if he thought the cartoons were published to purposely incite, as the imams believe. But I think it would be a good guess that the anti-immigration right would have suspected (and wanted) that Muslims would over react and were waiting to use that to their advantage and to promote their anti-immigration agenda. That would be my guess.

Alb Sayed:" think it would be a good guess that the anti-immigration right would have suspected (and wanted) that Muslims would over react and were waiting to use that to their advantage and to promote their anti-immigration agenda. "

Of course the right-wing is using the situation, just as conservative clerics in the ME are. No surprise.

What is surprising is that here in Denmark there has been NO violent incidents. And a lot of Danes are fed up with the us-and-them rethorics.

In the best possible future, native Europeans will be sensitive to religious feelings, because they understand and respect them. NOT out of fear.